With the release of Taika Waititi’s Awards, a lot of people are paying him greater attention than ever before (and deservedly so, the man is a genius).
In addition to his work as a director, he has also lent his considerable acting talents to a wide variety of roles, including a noteworthy (and surprisingly emotional) appearance in the recent series The Mandalorian. For those who want to get to know his work better, here are nine Taika Waititi projects to watch after you see JoJo Rabbit.
Flight of the Conchords (2007)
Waititi met fellow New Zealanders Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie while they attended college in Wellington, where they were in a comedy troupe together. Waititi eventually formed a partnership and toured with Clement, winning the highest New Zealand honor for comedy. Clement also formed a comedy band with McKenzie. After a successful comedy special on the channel, HBO greenlit a sitcom featuring the two playing a highly fictionalized version of themselves looking for success in New York. Waititi, as befits someone who was there when they discovered their comedy roots, wrote and directed several episodes.
What We Do In the Shadows (2014/2019)
This was another partnership between Waititi and Clement, who co-wrote and co-directed the film after making an earlier short. It's a mockumentary portraying the lives of three vampires in modern day Wellington as they try to cope with modern life with centuries-old views.
It was a critical hit, but due to a limited release, it remained largely unknown outside of New Zealand until it was heavily pirated. It eventually gained enough popularity for two spin-off shows— one following a different set of vampires living in Staten Island, and the following Wellington Paranormal.
Wellington Paranormal (2018)
He co-created and co-directed this one, which premiered in New Zealand in 2018. It follows two not-so-bright police officers from the film, who have been reassigned to a special Paranormal Unit in the department. The two cops, Minogue and O’Leary, aren’t the best officers in Wellington by a long shot— take the characters from whatever crime shows you’ve ever watched, reverse any qualities that make them good at their jobs, and you’ve got these two. It’s unclear whether they’re incurious, even dimmer than they seem, or it’s some lasting effect of being glamoured by a vampire, but they’re unfailingly polite to whatever demon or werewolf they come up against— who often seem to be as out of touch with reality as the two officers.
Seven Stages To Achieve Eternal Bliss (2018/2020)
The only project on this list that didn’t have Waititi involved in any behind the camera parts, it nevertheless stars an impressive list of comedy talent besides Waititi himself. Finished in 2018, it took nearly two years before its limited theatre run and digital wide release. A couple in LA find an apartment that seems too good to be true and move in quickly. They soon find that the catch is the ghost of a dead cult leader who died in their bathroom, and his followers who keep breaking into the apartment to try to follow after him.
Eagle vs Shark (2007)
Written and directed by Waititi, this romantic comedy follows fast-food worker Lily as she pursues a relationship with an odd man, Jarrod (Jemaine Clement), who works at a nearby video game store. Showing up to his party uninvited, the two nevertheless find themselves attracted to each other.
As she gets to know him more, Lily discovers Jarrod is more than a little strange. On a journey to confront his high school bully, she meets his also-strange family and discovers some of the things that Jarrod had been telling her about himself weren’t the truth.
The Mandalorian (2019)
Perhaps based on the strength of his runaway success helming bounty hunter after the fall of the Empire, Waititi’s episode wraps it up perfectly.
Boy (2010)
According to Waititi (who also directed), he set this film in 1984 because he wasn’t sure how to write dialogue for a kid in the present day. It shows a time in the life of a young boy, known simply as Boy, when his absentee father (played by Waititi) comes back into his life. Recently released from prison, Alemain thinks of himself as a tough guy and doesn’t see much use for his son at first, but eventually starts to grow fond of him. Eventually, Alemain’s lifestyle starts to catch up to him, and Boy has to figure out where his relationship with his father stands.
Hunt For The Wilderpeople (2016)
Hunt for the Wilderpeople is a 2016 film written, directed, and co-produced by Waititi, who also features in a small role. Sometimes a little bit sad but almost always very funny, it was loved by critics and audiences alike when it premiered. Starring Sam Neill as gruff “southern man” Hec, it shows the travails that follow when he’s saddled with a young juvenile delinquent from the city who doesn’t want to be there any more than Hec wants him to be. Eventually, as they end up running from the law and hiding in the woods of New Zealand’s South Island together, they find the worth in each other and a certain kind of peace with themselves.
The Breaker Upperers (2019)
This romantic comedy film also hails from New Zealand. Executive produced by Waititi, it stars comedians Madeleine Sami and Jackie van Beek, who also directed and wrote. Meeting when they find out their boyfriend was cheating on them with the other, they form an agency to help people break up with their significant other no matter what they have to do in order to get the job done. Eventually, their business life starts to interfere in their private lives and the have to figure out how to untangle everything before it goes any further.
